


and all our pieces fall, right into place

by noodlecatposts



Series: TOG Tumblr Prompts [1]
Category: Throne of Glass Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Complete, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Mutual Pining, Sharing a Bed, Smut, Tumblr Prompt/Request, Walking In On Someone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:02:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22430764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noodlecatposts/pseuds/noodlecatposts
Summary: "Our mutual friend dropped out of this trip at the last minute, so hi i guess we’re spending the next two weeks together!"Anon. Tumblr Prompt.
Relationships: Aelin Ashryver Galathynius | Celaena Sardothien & Rowan Whitethorn, Aelin Ashryver Galathynius | Celaena Sardothien/Rowan Whitethorn
Series: TOG Tumblr Prompts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1620088
Comments: 12
Kudos: 155





	and all our pieces fall, right into place

**Author's Note:**

> Rowaelin (accidentally) go on vacation. Just the two of them.
> 
> warnings? not unless you count: friends to lovers, bedsharing, walking in on your non-friend in the shower, and mutual unexpected pining. oh, and a little smutty-ness there at the end. <3
> 
> also, minimal editing because it's nearly midnight.

## DAY ONE

“Where’s Aedion?” Aelin complains for the hundredth time. They agreed to meet for breakfast before leaving and to leave by nine. It was 9:30.

Rowan snorts, and Aelin shoots him a glare. The man merely shrugs.

“Here I was thinking that it’d be you that made us late,” the white-haired male explains, indifferent to offending her. Aelin gasps, clearly offended.

“I’m _never_ late,” she cries, and Rowan arches a brow. “Well, not for anything important anyway.”

Rowan nods, surprising the woman by agreeing with her. “Just for all the other stuff.”

His tone is dry, but Aelin has slowly come to recognize it for what it was: Rowan’s humor. He was funny, in a subtle kind of way; Aelin just had to pay attention to see it.

“Exactly,” she chirps, catching the slightest hint of a smile on Rowan’s face. They were friends by proxy, through Aelin’s very, very tardy cousin, but they weren’t hostile to each other. Usually. Anymore.

When Aelin’s phone rings, she jumps at it, clicking answer and yelling “ _Where the fuck are you?”_ without even checking the caller ID. It’s her mother, and now Aelin is in for a scolding.

“What?” Aelin sounds so offended that now Rowan really does laugh. “No— _Mom._ Of course, I don’t—Hey! Right. Thanks. Love you, too—Now, bye!”

Aelin huffs in annoyance, and when she looks up, she’s blinded by the smile that Rowan wears in her direction. “What?”

She doesn’t mean to sound so defensive, but Aelin’s never seen Rowan look like that before. She didn’t think his face muscles knew how to form a smile that big or genuine. It catches her off guard; it makes her feel a little warm.

“Nothing,” Rowan tells her. His phone chimes and Aelin watches in anticipation as he checks it. His face falls, and Rowan looks to Aelin in abject horror.

“Aedion’s not coming,” he says.

## DAY TWO

“THE FLU?” Aelin cries into the phone, making Rowan wince. She’s loud. Louder than he’s used to. Aelin feels everything at 110%. Expresses it at that volume too.

He bets she talks in her sleep. Thank the gods the cabin has separate bedrooms.

“Aedion is sick as a dog,” Aelin declares, flopping onto the couch beside Rowan. It makes him drop the book he was reading. Now he’s lost his place. He shoots her a glare.

“He won’t be joining us,” she explains.

A retreat to the mountains, Aedion had said. It’ll be fun, he said. They’d hike through the forests and swim in the crystal-clear lake, and Rowan would have time and space to disappear and read a few books on his list, work on some art.

“What?” Aelin asks when she catches his look. He sighs.

“You’re—loud.” It was true.

She glares at him and huffs. “Well, you’re—” Aelin stares at him hard, clearly trying to find her own insulting observation of him. She bites her lip, and Rowan catches himself watching the movement. He moves his eyes back to Aelin’s eyes immediately.

“Grumpy.” Is what Aelin settles for. Rowan barks a laugh.

“Astute,” he tells her, reaching to the floor to pick up his book. “Now go away, so I can read.”

Aelin scoffs, tosses the pillow in her lap at his face as she leaves the room. She mutters something about a _boring buzzard,_ but the fiery woman leaves him in peace at last.

## Day Four

“I’m bored,” Aelin tells Rowan when she finds him on the patio. The man peers up at her from his sketchpad in silence before returning to his work.

“We’ve only been here for two days,” Rowan tells her. He sounds exasperated with her already. Aelin can’t believe her cousin abandoned her on this trip with his broody best friend.

“Yeah, well, there’s nothing to do!” Aelin declares.

Rowan snaps his sketchpad closed. “I have an idea, but you won’t like it.”

“Try me.” Aelin challenges. “I’m desperate.”

Rowan convinces her to go on a hike. Aelin likes physical activities just as much as the next person, but hiking in complete silence isn’t exactly fun. She decides to fill the silence with questions, but Rowan ignores most of it.

“Are you single?” Aelin asks eventually, and at last, that stone façade of Rowan’s cracks.

“Why do you want to know that?”

“Because,” Aelin begins as if it’s the most obvious thing ever. “You just signed up for a two-week vacation in the mountains in a cabin with one _very_ attractive single female for two weeks!”

Rowan snorts, and Aelin elbows him, hard. He grunts at the impact, which pleases her. “What I’m saying is: I need to know if there’s someone back home planning my murder.”

“You think I’d go on a trip with my best friend and his cousin for two weeks if I was in a relationship?” Rowan’s voice is a little incredulous.

Aelin flushes. “Good point.”

They climb the mountain path in silence after that, but when they stop for a water break, Rowan is the one to break the quiet.

“How about you?” He asks, passing her a water bottle.

“What about me?” Aelin gets distracted watching his throat move as he drinks. Rowan isn’t unattractive; Aelin just finds him incredibly irritating.

“Is there a guy back home planning to kick my ass that I need to know about?” Rowan says, licking the water from his lips and running his hands through his sweaty hair. It’s summer. It’s hot even here in the mountains.

Aelin snorts, looking away before she can get caught staring.

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” she tells him. Rowan looks mollified by this, so she adds with a sly smile: “Besides, I think you can take him.”

Rowan coughs, choking on his water, and Aelin bursts into laughter.

## Day Six

Rowan wakes up to the sound of a fire alarm going off. The noise confuses him, but the smell of smoke snaps him into action. The man launches from the bed and rushes for the kitchen. Thick clouds of smoke sting his eyes.

He finds Aelin on a step stool, frantically fanning the smoke alarm with a spatula and swearing quick, quiet oaths at it to _shut the hell up_. Rowan rushes past her to open the windows and let the smoke out.

“What did you do?” He asks in a growl. Aelin scoffs at him and keeps waving at the alarm.

“Why does it have to be my fault?” Aelin cries. “Maybe the smoke alarm just decided to go off?”

He snorts, inspecting the charcoal remains of what resembles bacon. “Do smoke alarms cook now? Did I miss that development?”

“Oh, fuck off!” Aelin yells at him, twisting on the stool to flip him off. “I was just trying to do something nice and make us breakfast! You don’t have to be such a jerk all of the time!”

The woman loses her balance on her stool, and Rowan makes it just in time to catch her by the waist and set her on her feet. Aelin’s hands brace themselves on his shoulders. And suddenly, Rowan is very aware of the fact that he sprung out of bed shirtless.

“Thanks,” Aelin tells him, quieter than he’s ever heard her.

“Sure, I shouldn’t just _fuck off_?” Rowan smirks. He can’t resist it.

Aelin just rolls her eyes, releasing her grip on his shoulders and pulling away. He feels cold without her near him.

“I mean, yeah. You definitely should,” Aelin tells him with an accusing look. “Cause if you’re about to suggest another hike, I’m never going to talk to you again!”

“If that’s the case, then I definitely suggest we go hiking again today.” He’s only a little bit serious.

Aelin gapes at him, looking very self-conscious all of a sudden. When the smile finally breaks free on Rowan’s face, Aelin groans and calls him a few very unkind names.

“Want to watch and learn how to make breakfast?” He offers instead.

“Can’t.” Aelin explains. “Because I’m not speaking to you anymore.”

Rowan’s laugh is carefree for a change, and he isn’t sure when that started happening, but he’s not sure he minds. Aelin hops up on the counter, kicking her heels into the cabinet as she watches him cook. He catches her eyeing his shirtless torse a few times, and it takes effort not to preen under her gaze.

Aelin chats the whole time he cooks. About a lot of nothing. Rowan actually finds he enjoys the sound of her voice now as he works; it’s soothing, knowing that someone else is nearby. That he’s not alone. Rowan’s been alone for a while.

## Day Seven

After breakfast yesterday, Rowan disappeared into his room and returned (unfortunately) dressed in a t-shirt and an array of movies. Apparently, he’d been holding out on her, having discovered the collection in his closet the first day they’d arrived.

Aelin gave him a hard time for _withholding valuable information_ but happily agreed to settling in for a movie day. The weather proved to warrant it, cloudy and gray. Aelin had a good time. Rowan was actually pretty pleasant when he wanted to be.

They’d eaten rather poorly, ordering pizza and scrounging up Aelin’s supply of sugary snacks. Well, Aelin ate rather poorly; Rowan mocked her mercilessly for her diet, smiling while he watched her rot her teeth out.

It was weird. This newfound friendship. It turned out they got along, even without Aedion as a buffer.

Aelin decides to go for a run the next morning. To work off all the sugar, she told herself, but really, it was because Aelin needed to clear her head. Seeing Rowan shirtless yesterday and cooking in their rental kitchen should _not_ have made her feel as flustered as it had.

She’d known he was attractive. Objectively speaking. The guy clearly took care of his body. He ate clean and worked out and was just—okay, he was hot. So, hot. Muscles for days, abs you wanted to run your fingers down _hot_.

And he cooked. And was funny. And _those eyes._

Shit. It was a lot.

Aelin nearly trips on her way back up the stairs and into the cabin they’re sharing. It’s only by chance that she manages to recover and not land face-first into the porch steps. That would be embarrassing. Maybe even more embarrassing than setting the fucking kitchen on fire trying to make bacon.

The woman blushes as she recalls the way Rowan swooped in to save her from landing on her ass. That was pretty embarrassing, too. Yet, the feeling of his hands holding her waist tight and all that warm, tanned skin under her fingers—that was a different feeling entirely.

Aelin makes her way straight for the bathroom. She needs a cold shower. She’s like some horny teenager or something. She needs to get it together before Rowan gets up for the day.

Headphones still in, Aelin turns the doorknob without knocking and enters.

And walks right into a _very_ naked and _very_ wet Rowan.

Her eyes move of their own accord, tracking the miles of tattoos across all that tanned, muscled skin she’d been thinking about just moments before. They travel down those broad shoulders and across that well-toned abdomen to one of the most well-formed Adonis belts she’s ever seen—

Her mouth goes dry at the sight of him.

“Aelin!” Rowan yelps in surprise.

That snaps Aelin back into action. She swears, apologizes, and runs her hip smack into the door frame on her way out. Face burning, Aelin thinks she hears Rowan calling something after her, but she chooses not to wait and find out what it is. Instead, she takes for the hills. She could run another lap or five. She had a lot of sugar last night.

Aelin runs until her face burns from the exertion rather than embarrassment, and she sneaks back into the house while Rowan is in his room. She doesn’t know how she’ll ever look the man in the eye again.

## Day Eight

“So, I hear you guys had a bit of an incident,” Aedion chuckles, voice still raspy from illness, when Rowan answers the phone the next morning.

Rowan closes his eyes and prays to the heavens. This is definitely not a conversation he wants to have with Aelin’s cousin. At least they aren’t on a video call.

Aedion laughs, full and from his belly. “She’s totally freaking out. Make sure to slide some food under the door to feed her, or she’ll starve herself to death in embarrassment. She’s stubborn. It runs in the family.”

Rowan grunts. Sometimes he thinks it must be hard to have a phone conversation with him. He talks so little face to face. That doesn’t change on the phone where people can’t read his facial expressions.

Aedion laughs again. “That bad huh?”

Rowan has nothing to say to that, so he doesn’t say anything.

But Aelin’s cousin knows him better than most. Better than Aelin. “Wait, a second. She didn’t, like, _look_ —did she? And you—fuck, are you into my cousin?”

“No,” Rowan says, but the words come to quickly and give him away.

Aedion groans. “Dude, whatever. I don’t want details. Just don’t be a fuck up. That’s my _cousin_.”

## Day Nine

“Want to go swimming?” Rowan calls through the door. Aelin hides under her covers and pretends not to hear him. “Aelin? Are you asleep?”

She remains silent, wishing he’d go away. Aelin plans to die right here in this bed, and there’s nothing Rowan can say to change that.

“Alright, I’m going to order some pizza,” Rowan says with a sigh, but there’s something knowing in his tone. Like he’s about to play his ace. “Finding Nemo is booting up now.”

Clever bastard. She slips out of the bed.

## Day Ten

Things are less awkward between them when they venture into town the following day. Their movie marathon was the perfect solution to ease the tension between them. Rowan teased Aelin throughout the day, and eventually, she got up the nerve to apologize to him.

Rowan just gave her a knowing wink, and Aelin turned back into a tomato.

“It’s really okay,” Rowan tells her before she can flee to her bedroom for another day. “It happens. We’re adults.”

“Right,” Aelin agrees. Rowan thinks the way that her cheeks flushed at that moment made her look... beautiful.

In town, they gather a few things that they need to survive their remaining days in the mountains. It’s quick work; they only have a few days left. Rowan’s a little sad to have to go home soon.

Aelin convinces Rowan to walk the historic part of town with her before packing back into the rental car. She flashes him her best smile, and Rowan doesn’t think he could tell her no if he wanted to.

He pretends to be annoyed as she takes pictures of _everything_ , and Rowan scowls for a few selfies with her until Aelin tickles his sides to pry a smile from him.

“Would you like for us to take a picture of the two of you?” An older woman offers with a smile. A man stands beside her with an amused expression; she must do this often, start conversations with strangers.

“Please?” Aelin asks without hesitation. Rowan doesn’t know how she does it. How she talks to people with such ease. Rowan can barely talk to his friends some days.

Aelin gives her phone to the stranger and then returns to Rowan’s side. She surprises him by tucking herself under his arm and leaning into his side.

Aelin poses for the photo, but through her teeth, she tells him. “You better smile, Ro.”

He grunts, and she pinches his side. Rowan shoots her a scowl. “You’re exhausting.”

Aelin just pinches his side again, skipping over to the lady and thanking her with a bright smile.

“Not a problem!” The woman tells her. Rowan shakes hands with the man, but it’s about all he’s capable of. “You two make sure a cute couple! How long have you been together?”

Aelin doesn’t miss a beat. “Uh, not long. But it seems like forever, doesn’t it, Ro?”

Her answer surprises Rowan. Aelin batts her eyelashes at him, and he’s lost for words by her brilliant eyes. He manages a _Yeah_ , and that’s about it.

## Day Eleven

“Why are you being such a—a jerk?” Aelin snaps at Rowan. The man just snorts and rolls his eyes at her. Rowan has been acting weird all day, and by weird, Aelin thought he was being a royal pain in her ass.

“People don’t always have to be pleasant, Your Majesty,” Rowan mutters. Aelin scoffs.

“Some people _are never_ pleasant,” Aelin hisses at him. It’s not true about Rowan, though. He could actually be very nice, had been all day yesterday in town, but then they’d run into the older couple while walking the historic district and—

_You two make sure a cute couple! How long have you been together?_

Could that be what this attitude of his was about?

_Uh, not long. But it seems like forever, doesn’t it, Ro?_

Was he mad that she’d lied to those people?

“Are you—upset with me?” Aelin asks. She feels really foolish when the tears start to prick at her eyes. Aelin doesn’t know when she started letting Rowan of all people get under her skin, but apparently the grumpy man scowling at her from the kitchen island has more influence on her than she thought.

“Not everything is about you, Aelin,” Rowan growls.

“Look—I’m sorry if what I said to that lady offended you, I just,” Aelin has to stop to swallow back the emotion in her voice when it cracks. He’s just being _so mean_ , and she thought they were past that. “Whatever. Forget it.”

Rowan glances up at her with disdain, but the expression falters at the sight of her tears. Aelin ducks her head and wipes at her eyes furiously. She’s feeling really stupid right now.

“A,” Rowan beings, but Aelin’s emotions have won this round. She throws her hands up at him to tell him to be quiet, and she abandons the lunch they were eating, retreating to the solace of her room.

## Day Eleven x2

Rowan can’t sleep.

He was such an ass to Aelin. He wanted to apologize to her immediately, as soon as the words left his mouth, but Rowan was a stubborn bastard. He could bring himself to do it. Then he caught sight of her tears, and he’d felt awful.

Rowan stood outside Aelin’s door for a long time, but he couldn’t get the courage to knock and say sorry. He didn’t know what to say to make things right, anyway. How was he supposed to apologize for being a jerk to her because Rowan couldn’t handle the realization that he had feelings for her?

So, Rowan went to bed. There he laid for hours, wide awake and staring at the ceiling. And feeling awful.

Rowan left his door open in hopes that Aelin might surface and give him the chance to make things right. She didn’t.

It’s the sound of soft crying that finally drags Rowan out of his bed. He follows the sound to Aelin’s door, and immediately, Rowan feels worthless. Was she still in there, upset about him? Rowan wasn’t worth the trouble.

“Ace,” Rowan borrows Aedion’s nickname for his cousin and knocks softly. “Aelin, I’m sorry. I’m such a—”

He swings the door open softly and is met by darkness. Inside, Rowan can just make out the shape of Aelin in her bed. She sniffles.

“I _was_ being a jerk,” Rowan tells Aelin. “I’m sorry.”

She doesn’t answer. It’s deserved, he thinks. If Rowan had been the one burned, he would have frozen Aelin out in a heartbeat. He kind of did. But it wasn’t her fault. Aelin didn’t know that her reaction to them as a couple would bother him. How could she?

Aelin cries again. Whimpers. And then Rowan realizes what’s going on.

Aelin is _dreaming._ A nightmare.

“Aelin,” Rowan approaches her slowly, kneels in front of the bed. He reaches out and touches her shoulder gently. Anything to stir her awake.

She wakes slowly from her sleep. Rowan draws soft circles into her bicep while he waits for Aelin to return to consciousness. Something in his chest breaks when her teary eyes finally open and focus on him. Aelin looks at him in confusion, brow furrowed, and sits up.

“Bad dream?” Rowan asks, perching himself on the edge of her bed. Rowan has his own share of nightmares. Sometimes it makes it easier to talk about them.

Aelin covers her face with her hands, and for a second it looks like she’s about to burst into tears. Rowan braces for impact. Yet, Aelin only breathes in deeply. Then she releases the air from her lungs slowly, the tension draining with her release.

“Yeah,” is all she says.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Rowan offers after a minute. Aelin shakes her head, wiping the tears from her eyes. He sighs, rises to leave, but Aelin catches his arm.

“I’m sorry I made you mad,” she says quickly. “And I know you don’t like me all that much, but will you stay? Until I fall back asleep?”

Rowan realizes then that he couldn’t deny Aelin anything if he wanted to.

“Of course.”

## Day Twelve

In the morning, Rowan wakes up in a warm bed with a pair of tan arms wrapped around his middle and Aelin’s face tucked in between his shoulder blades. The smile he wears makes his face hurt.

He needs to apologize to her, and he will. But for now, he’s going to enjoy this moment.

Things are different with them after that. The tension is there, but it’s different. Aelin’s smiles turn shy, and they make Rowan’s heart do summersaults in his chest. She still talks a lot, but he finds he enjoys it.

Rowan starts to share his own stories, about his childhood and his family. Aelin is eager to learn about him, asks more questions than one person should be able to come up with.

Rowan answers all of them.

## Day Twelve x2

“Wanna watch another movie?” Aelin asks, flopping onto the couch and grabbing the remote.

Rowan rounds the couch and shoots her a knowing look. “Depends on whether or not _another movie_ means a new movie or another screening of Finding Nemo?”

Aelin pouts at him. She was definitely about to play Finding Nemo, but Rowan didn’t have to call her out on it. He settles into the couch with a big sigh.

“Play it,” he tells her, but Rowan’s smiling.

## Day Thirteen

Aelin wakes up nestled against a very strong, warm chest. It smells of pine and the air after a fresh snowfall. She nuzzles into his, warm and happy.

Rowan grunts sleepily, presses a kiss to the crown of Aelin’s head and makes her heart leap into her throat. Waking up with him still in her room had made her whole day yesterday. Even if she wasn’t sure what it meant.

She giggles when Rowan comes to, snorting softly in surprise when he realizes where they are. Those emerald green eyes are warm and soft in the morning in a way they never are during the day when Rowan’s guard is up.

“Hey.” Rowan’s voice is low and hoarse with sleep. It makes Aelin’s blood warm, makes something tug low in her belly. She’d really like for him to say her name in a voice like that.

“Good morning,” she manages around the knot in her throat. They leave tomorrow morning, and Aelin won’t have an excuse to curl up on the couch with Rowan and fall asleep. They don’t spend time with each other like this, not without her cousin. Even if she’d like to.

Maybe Rowan senses her hesitation. Maybe he’s thinking something similar. Aelin watches his face as he thinks, wishing she could read that complicated mind of his.

His eyes drop to her lips, and Aelin decides to make her move.

She scoots her way up his body, their chests pressed in tight and legs intertwined. Reflexively, Rowan’s hands drop to her waist and helps her.

Noses brushes, Aelin hesitates for just a moment, savoring that moment just before the kiss. The feeling of your heart racing in anticipation and your chest aching with need, with want.

Rowan licks his lips, swallows like he’s nervous. She brushes her lips across his, soft. A test. He sucks in a breath, and Aelin sighs, capturing his lips with hers.

They kiss like that, soft and sweet, for a while, until Rowan’s hand slips underneath Aelin’s shirt. She hums, a low pleased sound that sets them on fire, and then their kisses are a little hungrier. More about give and take, then getting to know each other. Aelin nips Rowan’s bottom lip, and he groans, setting her blood aflame.

She draws her knees to his sides, straddling his lap and leaning back to tug her shirt off over her head. Rowan is there in an instant, meeting Aelin’s lips for a brief kiss before dragging his teeth down the column of her throat to the exposed tops of her breasts.

Aelin drops her head back, clutches at Rowan’s shoulders as he frees her from her bra and takes a nipple into his mouth.

“Ro,” she breathes his name, and Rowan returns his mouth to her. Their kiss is all teeth and tongue, but it makes Aelin burn with need. She moans into his mouth and takes his shirt by the hem, pulling it up.

They have to break the kiss to get his shirt off. Aelin has her mouth on his throat before Rowan can return to her body, and she scraps her nails down the front of his chest. Something she’s thought about doing since that day she walked in on him coming out of the shower.

He growls when she scratches at the faint trail of hair at his waist, plucks at the waistband of his sweats. Rowan grips her by the waist and pulls her closer to his body, flush against him. Aelin moans when she feels the bulge growing beneath her, grounds down on it in a way that has the both of them panting and breaking from their kiss.

“Should we take this to a bed?” Rowan mumbles into her skin and makes her shiver.

The idea of parting to make it to a bedroom is unbearable. Aelin moans, sucking a mark along his jaw until he meets her lips with his. Rowan laughs, kisses her softly, but he pulls away, clearly looking for an answer.

“There’ll be time for that later,” Aelin tells him, tugging his pants down and giving him a scandalous smile that has him groaning in anticipation.

They make it to the bed, eventually, where they stay all day. And into the night, too.

## Day Fourteen

The trip home is quiet, filled with soft touches and shy smiles. Aelin is giddy with whatever it is that’s blossomed between them. It’s unexpected, but it feels right.

Aedion will never let her live this down.

Rowan isn’t any different. He’s quiet and gets grouchy when the navigation system doesn’t warn him of a turn soon enough, and Aelin has to remind him to stop for food around lunchtime. He’s always a little nicer after food.

She tells him as much, and Rowan snorts, clearly unimpressed with her observation. Yet, when she stands up to make a trip for a drink refill, he catches her hand and gives Aelin an inappropriately passionate kiss for the public setting they’re in.

She nearly trips over her own feet on the way to the counter.

Rowan pulls up to her apartment complex too soon, and a wave of disappointment hits Aelin at the sight of her home. She wants to invite Rowan in, but she knows that the house sitter is waiting on him, that work and life and such are calling both of them back to their regular lives.

Doubt strikes Aelin through the heart as she gets out of the car. Is this something they’ll keep in the real world? Away from the mountains and movies and pizza dates?

Rowan comes up behind her, places his hands on her hips to support her as she yanks her bag down from the top of the vehicle. She leans back into him, greedy for those last moments of his affection. Aelin smiles as he wraps his arms around her and hugs her to his body, pressing a few kisses to her cheek, her neck, her shoulders.

Then he clears his throat, and Aelin grows nervous.

“Uh,” Rowan searches for the right words, and Aelin tries to prepare her mask. To keep the hurt from showing when Rowan tells her this was just a vacation thing.

“So, I know that this part usually comes first,” Aelin turns to face him, reads his face and only finds nervousness. She’s never seen Rowan look nervous like this, “but, uh, would you like to go to dinner? Tomorrow? Or this weekend? Whenever you’re free next?”

His laugh is shy, and Rowan runs his fingers through his hair. “I don’t actually know your schedule.”

She beams at him, stands on her tiptoes to reach his lips with hers. Rowan laughs a little brighter this time, hands snapping to her hips to steady her as Aelin gives him a deep and lasting kiss.

She presses her forehead to his, biting her lip to hide her happy smile. To think she doubted him.

“I’d love to.”

## DAY SEVEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY

Aedion does, in fact, never let them live it down. He tells the story so often that when the wedding comes around, most of the guests can already recite it for him during his Best Man speech. Aelin doesn’t care, and Rowan only pretends to be annoyed.

They honeymoon in the mountains.

**Author's Note:**

> Requests are still open! Although, I might take a while to respond. @noodlecatposts


End file.
